Oleg Deripaska

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Vladimir Putin with Oleg Deripaska. Democrats colluded with Deripaska to interfere in the 2016 Presidential election.

Oleg V. Deripaska is, according to the New York Times, "a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, has faced credible accusations of extortion, bribery and even murder."[1] Deripaska had close working relationships with Robert Mueller, Andrew McCabe, the Hillary Clinton campaign, Christopher Steele, and Democrat Sen. Mark Warner.

Deripaska famously appeared in a viral video in which Vladimir Putin scolded Russian oligarchs for incompetence, corruption and greed, asked Deripaska to sign an agreement to re-open a factory for the benefit of the workers then, when Deripaska tried to abscond with Putin's pen, asked Deripaska give it back.[2]

Deripaska was the source of the Democratic party's infamous "pee pee memo," alleging that a video existed of Trump watching prostitutes urinate on a bed the Obama's once slept in in a Moscow hotel which the Russians were using to blackmail Trump, so-called kompromat. Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to investigate the validity of the claim. Deripaska was motivated by a vendetta against Paul Manafort, whom he alleged stole money in a business deal, and wanted to curry favor with Obama Justice Department officials so he could get his Visa restrictions lifted.

Background

Deripaska is president of United Company RUSAL, and considered to be one of the richest men in the world worth an estimated at $5.1 billion, according to Forbes. Deripaska is married to Polina Yumasheva, granddaughter of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

In 2010 Robert Mueller and Andrew McCabe engaged in an operation in which Deripaska spent $25 million of his own money at the FBI's request because the FBI was prohibited by the Iran Sanctions Act. Circumvention of the law by Mueller and McCabe likely was illegal.

Deripaska is one of seven with long-standing ties to Vladimir Putin added to the U.S. sanctions list in 2018.

Steele dossier author Christopher Steele lobbied the Department of Justice on Deripaska behalf.[3] Paul Manafort is a former client and business partner whom Deripaska sued.

Deripaska has long denied any wrongdoing, recently suing the Associated Press for suggesting he worked with Manafort to help Putin and implying he was somehow involved in the Trump controversy. Deripaska also has said the US blocking of his visa was unwarranted, and offered to waive congressional immunity to testify before congressional probes into Russia interference in the U.S. 2016 election. Deripaska's offer to testify was blocked by Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, Vice-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.[4]

Paul Hauser is a British national who reportedly serves as Deripaska's attorney.

Robert Mueller

On November 9, 2019, it was reported that Robert Levinson was still alive.[5]

In 2009, when Robert Mueller ran the FBI, the bureau asked Deripaska to spend millions of his own dollars funding an FBI-supervised operation to rescue a retired FBI agent, Robert Levinson, captured in Iran while working for the CIA in 2007.

FBI agents courted Deripaska in 2009 in a series of secret hotel meetings in Paris; Vienna; Budapest, Hungary, and Washington. Deripaska ultimately spent $25 million assembling a private search and rescue team that worked with Iranian contacts under the FBI's watchful eye.

Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz. Gritz was driven out of the FBI by its bigoted leadership. Gritz filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against Andy McCabe and others in the FBI leadership. Gritz received support from Gen. Michael Flynn who was willing to testify against McCabe.

Robyn Gritz, the retired FBI agent who supervised the case in 2009 said

"I kept Director Mueller and Deputy Director [John] Pistole informed of the various efforts and operations, and they offered to intervene with State, if necessary."

The FBI had three reasons for choosing Deripaska for a mission worthy of a spy novel. First, his aluminum empire had business in Iran. Second, the FBI wanted a foreigner to fund the operation because spending money in Iran might violate U.S. sanctions and other laws. Third, agents knew Deripaska had been banished since 2006 from the United States by State over reports he had ties to organized crime.[6]

Melanie Sloan, a former Clinton Justice Department lawyer and longtime ethics watchdog said s "far more significant issue" is whether the earlier FBI operation was even legal:

"It's possible the bureau's arrangement with Mr. Deripaska violated the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits the government from accepting voluntary services."[7]

In fall 2009, according to U.S. entry records, Deripaska visited Washington on a rare law enforcement parole visa. And since 2011, he has been granted entry at least eight times on a diplomatic passport, even though he doesn't work for the Russian Foreign Ministry. Former FBI officials confirm they arranged the access.

The U.S. government in April 2018 imposed sanctions on Deripaska, one of several prominent Russians targeted to punish Vladimir Putin - using the same sort of allegations that the State Department used from 2006 to 2009. Yet, between those two episodes, Deripaska seemed good enough for Mueller's FBI to ask him to fund that multimillion-dollar rescue mission. And to seek his help on a sensitive political investigation. And to allow him into the country eight times.

Andrew McCabe

Before Andrew McCabe's meteoric rise in the FBI's Washington D.C. offices, he led the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force, a joint operation with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). run out of the FBI's New York Field Office in Manhattan. McCabe supervised the task force who were aggressively chasing and flipping, and in many cases – paying Russian organized crime figures as snitches to make high-profile cases.

Like Robert Hanssen, McCabe always seemed to have his fingers in all things Russia that the FBI was doing. Hanssen worked the same angle for over $1 million in cash and diamonds, working as an inside counterintelligence agent, reporting back to Russia the FBI's as a double-agent.

While in New York, McCabe worked in tandem with Bruce Ohr who often coordinated with McCabe's Russian organized crime task force. Ohr worked Organized Crime too for DOJ.

McCabe maintained an alliance with Deripaska. McCabe met with Deripaska in Europe without proper clearance from FBI, while Deripaska was a possible target on a FBI organized crime probe.

During McCabe's liaisons with Deripaska, Peter Strzok was running the FBI's Post-Adjudication Risk Management plan, or PARM, a program initiated to catch problematic and criminal associations of FBI agents. Strzok and PARM should have snagged McCabe's Russian associations, especially Deripaska. Many agents were fired for far less, under the stringent internal program.

And by 2015 even officials at the Central Intelligence Agency became concerned about McCabe's contact with Russian officials, according the federal law enforcement sources. The CIA's Counter Espionage Division may have opened a formal a case on McCabe, after intelligence about his contacts with Russians sparked a review of his foreign associates, sources said.

"There may have been an official case. I know for a fact he was looked at informally, where we would see what he was doing with foreign contacts. A formal case would be classified and I couldn’t get into the details if it hinged on Russian organized crime,"
one CIA source confirmed. The agency source said McCabe was on the CIA's radar after 2009 and 2010 when agency officials got word McCabe may have he met with Deripaska in Europe.

FBI organized crime investigators had apparently been looking at Oleg Deripaska at the time of the meeting, FBI sources said and McCabe, as FBI brass, did not seek the proper approval from FBI Dir. Robert Mueller or DOJ brass to sit down with the Deripaska.

"He really had no business meeting with Deripaska and sort of forced his way into the trip at the last minute. He kept in touch with Deripaska and was very touchy about anyone else (from the FBI) speaking to him. Andy took an active role (with Deripaska).”

Two FBI Agents were sanctioned by Mueller's office to interview Deripaska in Europe. McCabe was FBI upper echelon and was not approved to speak to Deripaska, sources said. In fact, it appears FBI policy would have required McCabe to get a waiver signed by DOJ officials to be permitted to meet with Deripaska, especially since Deripaska was a potential player in an open FBI investigation.

"You #$?%π€¥ need really high level approvals for that. These people are potential targets in a FBI investigation.”

Many FBI sources too questioned why Robert Mueller would sign off on McCabe's trip to Europe to meet with Deripaska. But McCabe acknowledged to FBI agents that Deripaska was a were old friends.[8]

Christopher Steele and Bruce Ohr

After the Obama administration and Clinton campaign paid foreign agents to meddle in the 2016 election, the foreign agent responsible for the domestic crisis in the U.S. wanted to be re-engaged with the Mueller probe to help unseat the U.S. president.

Former British spy Christopher Steele had known Deripaska since at least 2012, when he was hired by Deripaska's U.S. lawyer, Adam Waldman, on behalf of Deripaska to assist in a lawsuit filed “by a business rival,” according to an article by John Solomon for The Hill.

In late 2014, Steele and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr met in Washington to discuss cultivating Deripaska into an FBI informant on Russian organized crime, according to a New York Times article. This wasn't disclosed during Ohr's congressional testimony.[9]

In 2015, Steele helped set up a meeting between Deripaska and the FBI, but wasn't directly involved in the meeting itself, according to the New York Times article. Bruce Ohr, however, was personally involved in the meeting, which reportedly involved pressing Deripaska “on the connections between Russian organized crime and Mr. Putin’s government, as well as other issues.”

Emails in 2016 between Steele and Bruce Ohr suggest Steele was deeply concerned about the legal status of the Putin-linked Russian oligarch Deripaska, and was advocating on Deripaska's behalf, at the same time Steele worked on collecting the Russia-related allegations against Donald Trump that came to be known as the Steele dossier. The emails show Steele and Ohr were in frequent contact, that they intermingled talk about Steele's research and Deripaska's affairs, and that Glenn Simpson, head of the dirt-digging group Fusion GPS that hired Steele to compile the dossier, was also part of the ongoing conversation.[10]

Steele was interested in getting Deripaska a new VISA to enter the U.S. Steele was very persistent and was soliciting Bruce Ohr for assistance. This set up a quid-pro-quo, entry for Deripaska into the United States in exchange for cooperation on 'other matters' later.

On 30 July 2016 Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Christopher Steele and Glenn Simpson had breakfast at the Washington Mayflower Hotel. Steele told Ohr that "Paul Hauser, who was an attorney working for Oleg Deripaska, had information about Paul Manafort, that Paul Manafort had entered into some kind of business deal with Oleg Deripaska, had stolen a large amount of money from Oleg Deripaska, and that Paul Hauser was trying to gather information that would show that, you know, or give more detail about what Paul Manafort had done with respect to Deripaska.” The money relates to a failed Ukrainian cable TV project Deripaska invested money with Manafort in. Bruce Ohr called Andy McCabe immediately after the meeting.

The FBI's investigation, dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane” was formally opened the following day by FBI agent Peter Strzok.

Two weeks after that New York Times published an article entoitled Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief.” The article states: “Mr. Deripaska would later say he invested $18.9 million in Pericles [Manafort's company] in 2008 to complete the acquisition of Black Sea Cable. But the planned purchase—including the question of who ended up with the Black Sea assets—has since become the subject of a dispute between Mr. Deripaska and Mr. Manafort.”[11]

Manafort resigned as Trump's campaign chairman 5 days later.

Sen. Mark Warner

In May 2018, reporter John Solomon was contacted by Deripaska's D.C. attorney Adam Waldman with a story about how the FBI contacted Deripaska for help in their Trump-Russia investigation. Deripaska wanted to testify to Congress in 2017 and waive immunity, but was rebuked. Waldman was also representing Steele, and was the liaison that Ranking Democrat Sen. Mark Warner of the Senate Intelligence Committee was using to try and set up a secret meeting with Steele.

Ranking Democrat Sen. Mark Warner of the Senate Intelligence Committee scuttles Oleg Deripaska's willingness to testify. Deripaska was contacted by McCabe in September 2016 and asked to participate in the FBI's Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

The House Intelligence Committee wanted to interview Deripaska. However, based on their ongoing contact and relationship Deripaska's lawyer, Adam Waldman, asked Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chair Mark Warner for feedback. Deripaska was blocked from testifying to congress. It was obviously not Chairman Nunes of the House Intel Committee (HPSCI) that blocked testimony, but rather by the Senate Intel Committee, via Vice-Chair Sen. Mark Warner.

Deripaska likely was one of Christopher Steele's Russian sources for the fictions of the Steele dossier. After Trump's victory Deripaska and the Democrats found themselves in a hard place. Deripaska is particularly a threat to the Obama and Clinton operatives who tried to meddle in the 2016 elections, especially if Deripaska told his story publicly.

John McCain

Sen. John McCain met twice with Deripaska, whose visa was blocked by the United States amidst intelligence community concerns. The meetings were arranged by Paul Manafort and his lobbying firm partner Rick Davis, who later became McCain's campaign manager. Davis was McCain's campaign manager in both 2000 and 2008.

In the mid-2000s Davis connected with Deripaska. At the time, the Davis-Manafort firm was advising with pro-Russian political figures in Ukraine and also doing work in Montenegro, another former Soviet satellite that Putin was trying to influence.

While Davis was building the political connections with the oligarch, he was handing off the commercial side of the relationship to Manafort, his longtime lobbying partner. Manafort came to work on the commercial side for Deripaska through Davis.

U.S intelligence raised concerns to McCain's staff about the Davis Manafort work. McCain's office also was warned about possible Russian military connections to one of his policy advisers at the International Republican Institute (IRI), a think tank which McCain chairs. In 2005, McCain's inner circle was encouraged to distance itself from the adviser, causing aides to scramble to separate Deripaska from McCain.

In 2006, Davis and Manafort arranged two meetings with McCain and Deripaska. The first occurred in January 2006 in Davos, Switzerland.

Deripaska showed up by McCain a second time, during an official trip to Montenegro, another place where the Davis-Manafort firm was offering advice. Deripaska and Davis joined McCain and other officials at a dinner hosted by the country's government in August 2006, and some of the attendees went on to take a cruise aboard a yacht where drinks and pastry were served in honor of McCain's 70th birthday.

Deripaska's visa to travel to the United States had been blocked by the State Department because of concerns about his ties to Russian businesses and government. The U.S. embassy in Moscow monitored Deripaska's business dealings during the time, reporting back to Washington they believed the oligarch was close to Putin.

“Deripaska enjoys a favorable relationship with President Putin -- he is a more or less permanent fixture on Putin's trips abroad, and he is widely acknowledged by our contacts to be among the 2-3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis,”
one 2006 cable from the Moscow embassy to Washington declared.

The oligarch's visa controversy dragged on for years and reached the highest levels of both governments. A February 2008 State Department cable released by WikiLeaks shows that Putin was so concerned about the matter that he had then-Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislyak lobby then U.S. Ambassador to Moscow William Burns to try win Deripaska's entry to the United States.

“Kislyak parried with a demand for more information on the U.S. refusal to issue Oleg Deripaska a visa. Ambassador said he had already provided our response,” the cable said. Putin eventually dispatched Kislyak to be his ambassador in Washington.

During the 2008 campaign, the Davis Manafort firm disclosed through its U.S. partner Daniel J. Edelman Inc., that it was working for the political party in Ukraine supporting Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was backed by Putin.

"Davis Manafort International LLC is directed by a foreign political party, the Ukraine Parties of Regions, to consult on the political campaign in Ukraine," the January 2008 Foreign Agent Registration Act filing showed.

The work included developing "a communications campaign to increase Prime Minister Yanukovych's visibility in the U.S. and Europe," the report added, indicating that Davis and Manafort were being paid a $35,000 a month retainer for the work that began in spring 2007.

Manafort was first questioned by the FBI about his Russian and Ukrainian ties in 2014, two years before he became Trump's campaign manager, and agents probed him on how he first came to work for Deripaska through McCain's top political adviser, Davis.[12]

Paul Manafort

See also: Ukrainian collusion

Deripaska once hired Paul Manafort as a political adviser and invested money with him in a Ukrainian cable TV venture, Black Sea Cable, that went bad. Deripaska sued Manafort.

Mueller's indictment of Manafort makes no mention of Deripaska, even though prosecutors have evidence that Manafort contemplated inviting his old Russian client for a 2016 Trump campaign briefing.

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said Robert Mueller has a conflict of interest because his FBI previously accepted financial help from a Russian that is, at the very least, a witness in the Manafort probe.

The real question becomes whether it was proper to leave [Deripaska] out of the Manafort indictment, and whether that omission was to avoid the kind of transparency that is really required by the law,”
Dershowitz said.

Trump-Russia

Hunter Biden tried to shakedown Deripaska for $80,000.[13]
Main article: Trump-Russia collusion hoax

According to an account given by Deripaska's registered Washington agent, two months before Donald Trump was elected president, Deripaska was in New York as part of Russia's United Nations delegation when three FBI agents awakened him in his home; at least one agent had worked with Deripaska on the aborted effort to rescue Levinson. During an hour-long visit, the agents posited a theory that Trump's campaign was secretly colluding with Russia to hijack the U.S. election.

"Deripaska laughed but realized, despite the joviality, that they were serious," Waldman said. "So he told them in his informed opinion the idea they were proposing was false. 'You are trying to create something out of nothing,' he told them."
The agents left though the FBI sought more information in 2017 from the Russian. Waldman declined to say if Deripaska has been in contact with the FBI since Sept, 2016.

Collusion

In October 2018 the U S. government seized Deripaska's $42.5 million New York mansion as he was being investigated for money-laundering, bribery, racketeering and murder.[14] Deripaska enjoys mocking corrupt elements within the U.S. deep state and was a source for the Democrats who put the pee-pee memo in the Steele dossier to see if partisan career professionals in the Obama DOJ/FBI would actually be foolish enough to use it.[15]

Deripaska likely worked with Orbis International, Christopher Steele and Michael Isikoff independently of Hillary Clinton and the DNC, and was motivated by revenge on Paul Manafort. Steele evidently had two clients, Deripaska and FusionGPS, and used the research he had already gathered on Manafort for Deripaska with his Fusion clients. Isikoff had already published his first hit piece on Manafort in April 2016, before Steele was hired by Fusion.

See also

References